Simulation in Supply Chains: An Arena basis

<p>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The quest for global competitiveness brought about new business approaches, of which the supply chain has become an important entity during the last few years. With even more complex decision structures, demand variation and the need for evaluating alternatives within this frame, simulation and simulation-optimization have been identified as key decision-making tools. This paper briefly reviews the basic characteristics of supply chains, and illustrates that existing software may be integrated towards a supply chain simulator.</p><p>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die strewe na globale mededingendheid vereis nuwe benaderings deur ondernemings, terwyl die toevoerketting 'n belangrike entiteit gedurende die afgelope paar jaar geword het. Toenemende kompleksiteit in besluitneming, variasie in vraag en die behoefte om alternatiewe binne hierdie komplekse raamwerk te evalueer, het tot gevolg dat simulasie en simulasie-optimering as sleutel-besluitneming gereedskap beskou word. Hierdie artikel gee 'n kort oorsig oor die basiese eienskappe van toevoerkettings, en dit word getoon dat bestaandeprogrammatuur integreer kan word om 'n toevoerketting-simuleerderte ontwikkel.</p&gt

A Multiagent Approach for Modelling SME Mechatronic Supply Chains

International audienceThis paper presents the application of the multiagent system for modelling supply chains involving Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the mechatronic industry. This work is a combination of two research scopes. The first one deals with the identification of the different concepts able to model the particular manufacturing systems and production context in Savoie - France. The second one outlines the development process based on an agent modelling approach, which offers an easy and reusable modelling of supply chain concepts

Une Approche Agent pour Modéliser la Chaîne Logistique dans un Contexte de PME Mécatronique

International audienceFace aux exigences du marché et à ses fréquentes mutations, l'intégration des différents acteurs dans la chaîne logistique est devenue un atout concurrentiel quel que soit le domaine de production, qu'il soit de biens ou de services. Le domaine de la mécatronique n'est pas épargné par ces exigences. Les travaux de recherche présentés dans cet article s'inscrivent dans ce domaine puisqu'ils s'orientent vers la recherche d'une solution pour un tissu industriel composé particulièrement de PME situées dans les pays de Savoie. Dans cet article, nous mettons en œuvre des recherches issues de deux domaines différents. Le premier se focalise sur l'étude des maillons et de l'organisation des PME dans la chaîne logistique. L'analyse qui en découle nous permet d'identifier et de modéliser les concepts relatifs à notre domaine de recherche. Le second concerne le processus de développement logiciel basé sur l'approche multiagent qui offre une modélisation structurée et réutilisable des concepts de la chaîne logistique. Abstract - In order to meet global dynamic market and its perturbations, the supply chain and its integration across the different organizations has become a competitive business advantage along the production processes. In particular, the mechatronic industry is very sensitive to these requirements. Our research deals with a supply chain modelling solution for an industrial environment composed of Small and Medium mechatronic Enterprises located in Savoy. In this paper, we combine two research scopes. The first one focuses on the study of elements and SME organization in the supply chain. The analysis allows us to identify and model the research domain concepts. The second one outlines the development process based on an agent modelling approach which offers an easy and reusable modelling of supply chain concepts

A conceptual model for SMEs mechatronics supply chain.

17International audienceNowadays, in order to meet the demands of the global dynamic market and eliminate its disturbances, the supply chain and its integration across different organizations has become a competitive business advantage along the production processes. In particular, the mechatronic industry is very sensitive to these requirements. Our research deals with modelling the supply chain in order to manage and implement a simulation platform. Basically, we develop a modelling solution for an industrial environment composed of mechatronic Small and Medium Enterprises located in Savoie (France). The study is based on elements from real applications and the SMEs network organization. An analysis of the domain helped us to develop concepts and a modelling approach adapted to these companies. In this work, we present the area studied, the methodology used to construct the conceptual model of the supply chain, its structure and management rules. Then, we present the model obtained. Finally, we apply this conceptual model to a case study

Supply chain analysis in the Australian lamb processing industry

During the last decade, supply chain management has played an important role in enabling many agribusinesses to succeed in their business goals, gain competitive advantage, and improve their business performance. As the result, there has been extensive research into strategic supply chain management with the aim of improving agribusiness performance at each stage of the supply chain. This is because in the current agribusiness world, supply chain activities are crucial in influencing many companies to continuously adapt proper supply chain management practices. The objective of this research was to analyse supply chain performance indicators among Australian lamb processors by using survey data and empirical models. Based on the results of these analyses, alternative configurations for these supply chains were suggested to help enhance the performance of the businesses concerned. The results indicate that food quality and efficiency are significant indicators of competitive advantage for lamb processors

A collaborative decision-making approach for supply chain based on a multi-agent system

To improve the supply chain's performance under demand uncertainty and exceptions, various levels of collaboration techniques based on information sharing were set up in real supply chains (VMI, CPR, CPFR...). The main principle of these methods is that the retailers do not need to place orders because wholesalers use information centralization to decide when to replenish them. Although these techniques could be extended to a whole supply chain, current implementations only work between two business partners. With these techniques, companies electronically exchange a series of written comments and supporting data, which includes past sales trends, scheduled promotions, and forecasts. This allows participants to coordinate joint forecasting by focusing on differences in forecasts. But if the supply chain consists of autonomous enterprises, sharing information becomes a critical obstacle, since each independent actor is typically not willing to share with the other nodes its own strategic data (as inventory levels); That is why researchers proposed different methods and information systems to let the members of the supply chain collaborate without sharing all their confidential data and information. In this chapter we analyze some of the existing approaches and works and describe an agent-based distributed architecture for the decision-making process. The agents in this architecture use a set of negotiation protocols (such as Firm Heuristic, Recursive Heuristic, CPFR Negotiation Protocol) to collectively make decisions in a short time. The architecture has been validated on an industrial case study

Evaluation of two strategies coordinated through supply system dynamics: a case study in the field of construction materials

[EN] In this paper, a simulation modeling using system dynamics (Vensim®) to propose an alternative coordination solution between two companies in the construction sector. It is provided a comparison between the field results of an alternative solution provided by the adhesive company in response of his customer collaboration request, kitchen bench company, to manage the supply and the results of the simulation model.[ES] En este artículo, se propone un modelo de simulación mediante la dinámica de sistemas (Vensim®) con el fin de evaluar alternativas de coordinación en la gestión del aprovisionamiento entre dos empresas del sector de la construcción. Se comparan los resultados de campo, de una solución aportada por una empresa de adhesivos, en respuesta a la solicitud de colaboración de su cliente, empresa de encimeras, para la gestión del aprovisionamiento y se evalúan los resultados a través de una simulación.Rius Sorolla, G.; Maheut, J.; Estelles Miguel, S.; García Sabater, JP. (2015). Evaluación de dos estrategias de aprovisionamiento coordinado mediante la dinámica de sistemas: caso de estudio en el sector de materiales de la construcción. Dirección y Organización. (55):44-51. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/79665S44515

A multi-agent knowledge model for SMEs mechatronic supply chains.

19International audienceThe main concern of this research work is to analyse and model supply chains (SCs) in a particular context which is that of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the field of mechatronic. The study is based on the analysis of the organisational features, the actors' behaviour, and performance considerations. The development of the model relies on an iterative framework that progressively integrates different aspects into the model. This framework is the ArchMDE process, which is based on MDE (Model Driven Engineering). A major feature of this work lies in its contribution to two different areas of research. The first contribution of the work is to propose a generic metamodel for SCs. Based on a literature review, an incremental framework is proposed for the modelling of SCs in terms of concepts, structure and relationships. The application of the framework to the studied context is described and its result is a domain-metamodel for SCs. The second contribution of this work lies in the formalisation of the dynamic behaviour of the concepts in the metamodel. This formalisation is based on the multi-agent approach. An agentification of the metamodel is thus drawn, thanks to the natural links between multiagent theory and SC reality. This step leads to an agentified-domain-metamodel which also includes the monitoring of the SC and synchronisation protocols. By adding relationships and dynamic behavior aspects, we obtain a metamodel of the domain that can be implemented, with its static and dynamic aspects. To validate this model, an industrial case study is detailed and has been instantiated and encoded in JAVA

A Simulation of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain to Provide Realistic Test

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